04 March 2005	Friday	22 Muharram 1426

KARACHI, March 3: A good number of the top position holders at Karachi University are not awarded gold medals as the university has been unable to spare money or arrange some endowments for the purpose.

During its 18th general convocation scheduled to be held on March 5, university is likely to present a total of 191 gold medals to top position holders and other meritorious graduates belonging to 2004, 2003 and 2002 batches of different departments of the morning programme.

In addition to giving away gold medals to first position holders, the university awards medals to students who secure certain percentage of marks or dominated in any branch of their main courses. All the medals, except those presented to outstanding holders of DLitt and DSc degrees, are sponsored by outside agencies and philanthropists.

A KU official said that some 35 years back the amount of endowment for the gold medals ranged from Rs3,000 to Rs5,000, which enhanced up to 150,000 in 2002 while the existing amount of endowment is Rs500,000, as required by the university.

Had the university been holding its convocation every year, it could have been hard for the university to continue with certain medals due to very nominal income from the related endowments and the increasing expenses incurred on the preparation of gold medals, the official added.

The meritorious students are of the view that if the university, which is believed to see increase in its resources in the recent years, can not meet the cost of gold medals from its coffers, it could have negotiated with well-off and influential individuals to muster financial support for instituting gold medals.

They say that university authorities and the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which have been talking about incentives to faculty members, should also move to honour all the deserving and outstanding students. If some other public universities do award gold medals while relying on their own funds, why not Karachi University do that, they questioned.

It is said that 80 per cent of the Honour's class first position holders and 20 per cent that of the Masters class of the morning programmes and the entire top position holders of the evening programmes have to sit without gold medals every year.

The medal has been made of one tola of 18 karats gold with a cost of Rs10,200 each in the finished form for the latest convocation. This year only one, Shaheed Khalid Bin Waleed Gold Medal for the best student in BA (Honours) International Relations department, could be added to the tally of medals, bringing it to 75.

Another KU official observed that there was no obligation on the university to award gold medals to all distinguished graduates. Under the rules, university is needed to arrange for the gold medals in the case of distinguished graduates of DLitt and DSc degrees only, the official added.

Normally, an insider says, the students having secured first position or distinction at any level go out to find sponsors for the gold medal endowment within their nears and dears. The sponsors are free to set criteria for award of medals, while the university syndicate gives a formal approval for the endowments.

A senior KU teacher said that under the present system some of the students were able to get more than one medal, while some of the meritorious students did not receive any medal at all.

It was suggested that the sponsor firms, groups or individuals or philanthropists should just offer the amount of endowment for medals and not determine the recipients of awards or the beneficiary teaching department.

In all 70 gold medals would be awarded to students, including only 17 bachelors' degree holders, of the 2004 batch, while to another 60, including 15 bachelors' degree holders, of the 2003 batch and to 61, including 13 bachelors' degree holders, of 2002 batch.

At the convocation, the KU would be awarding degrees to graduates of morning programmes of three batches and over 100 degrees to graduates of evening programmes of different batches. In the case of evening programme students the latest convocation would be the first one.

A gold medal for DSc in Chemistry would be awarded to Dr Mohammad Iqbal Choudhary of HEJ Institute of Chemistry; while a DLitt (Urdu) gold medal would be awarded to Syed Waqar Ahmed Rizvi, of the urdu department.

The KU will also award an honorary DSc degree to Prof Dr Attaur Rahman, Chairman of the Higher Education Commission. In addition, about 69 persons will be conferred PhD and MPhil degrees at the convocation, which would be presided over by the Sindh governor, Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, who is also the chancellor of the university.